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Top 50 SF & F Books

For whatever reason, I’m in one of those funks where I can read about 5 pages of any book I pick up and realize I am paying absolutely no attention. Thus, recreational reading and book reviews are at a crawl. That leads to this post, which is something I held off on but then thought, what the hell.

It’s a meme on the 50 Most Significant SF & F Books published between 1953 and 2002. It comes from a list created by the Science Fiction Book Club but I think Lou Anders started the meme. You’re supposed to boldface books you’ve read, italicize those started but never finished and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved.
So here goes:

The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien

The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov*

Dune, Frank Herbert*

Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein

A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin

Neuromancer, William Gibson

Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke*

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick

The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe

A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.*

The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov

Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras

Cities in Flight, James Blish

The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett

Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison

Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison

The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester

Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany

Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey

Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card

The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson

The Forever War, Joe Haldeman

Gateway, Frederik Pohl

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams*

I Am Legend, Richard Matheson

Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice

The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin

Little, Big, John Crowley

Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny

The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick

Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement

More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon

The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith

On the Beach, Nevil Shute

Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke*

Ringworld, Larry Niven*

Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys

The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien

Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut

Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson

Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner

The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester

Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein

Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock

The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks

Timescape, Gregory Benford

To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

I imagine reading over half of the list confirms geekiness or addiction or both. It would be more than half if the list were limited to SF and didn’t include the fantsy works. And while I don’t necessarily agree with everything on the list it’s an interesting compilation.

The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.

Well, I wasn’t thinking hated so much as overrated. Something that you think was an ok read (Thomas Covenant) or that you’ve never understood why so many people loved it (Dune) or you just don’t think belongs (Silmarillion)

Anyway, it is a good list, with some interesting choices that don’t get read often (I gotta believe Dahlgren is usually in italics; took me several years to finish and I’m persistent)